I hope that over the next coming weeks and months you will see this blog grow and evolve into something that I have long tried to resist and fight off. Much to my avail the powers that be have been quite persuasive and long been pushing my life in a direction I was determined I was not meant to live.
It’s been nearly just over a year now that I have been writing this blog, and even I admit that at times it has been a bit un – constructed. My reasoning for starting this web based diary came from my love of food and all of its countless tendrils, I planned to review restaurants, find where to buy the best produce, re – count my love for the numerous amount of cookery shows that are now so popular and to have an outlet to voice my culinary passions that didn’t end up driving my husband to some sort of food provoked violence as I constantly wittered on about my favourite subject.
It has been by natural progression that I have found my blog veering more and more towards one particular subject, one that has always been in the background, nurturing its self organically until I was mentally ready to undertake the subject whole heartedly.
We have pursued and persevered at (mostly) successfully at growing our own vegetables for the last five years. What started out as a meter width potato trench and a few salad plugs here and there, are vegetable patch has now reached the size of a small football pitch.
What was once the smallest of delicate seedlings has now firmly deep rooted and intertwined itself into our hearts and however much I longed for beautifully manicured nails and dirt free cracks in the crevices of my fingers, it seems like fate has played her card and encouraged me to go down a route which I was once so desperate to turn and run from.
This week I have been toying with the idea of swopping my welly boots for flippers and my mud flecked anorak for my spotty swimming costume and some goggles for the rain has been consistently dampening my chances of getting into my garden and planting out some of my more tender young plants that have been spending their youth in my battered greenhouse.
Fortunately, just as I was about to give in to the relentless amount of weeds that seem to be sucking up every nutrient this persistent rain has to offer and spreading themselves over my veg patch as quick as the black death, one of my most much loved and hard standing vegetable plants has flourished and managed to counter act my most negative feelings at this time of year.
Whilst hibernating in a slumbering state over the torrent winter months and giving off the impression it is unable to return from its comatose appearance, Rhubarb seems to unbelievably bounce back with its magnificently protruding candy pink stalks and ginormous fan shaped leaves.
Perfect for the newbie vegetable gardener 1 year old rhubarb crowns (plants) are readily available from most garden centres and town markets. Best planted in an easily prepared soil bed in late autumn to early winter, by mid spring you should have a flourish of eye catching blush coloured stems that await their final tasty destination.
When handed a stem as a child by my grandparents as a treat to dip in a bowl of crispy granulated sugar my naivety caused me to discard the shortened green flecked stems and use my fingers instead whilst my sister obediently consumed the lot. I never saw the attraction that others craved in crumbles and pies and instead chose to listen to the negative comments of the rhubarb haters that all too often maintained that the fruit was sour and stringy.
These influences obviously had quite an effect for the rest of my childhood as I don’t remember ever trying rhubarb again until we were graciously given some crowns when we first embarked on our veg patch by some extremely generous neighbouring Italian vegetable aficionados (more on them to come). By this time I had grown out of my childish ways and my feverish inquisitiveness left me with no recollection why I had questioned rhubarb in the first place!
At this time of year it’s my number one go to for puddings, breakfast or even for adding a sharpness to creamy cheese based salad. If unexpected guests arrive expecting to be treated and the cake tin is empty I eagerly skip down to the bottom of the garden, pull (never cut) a few stalks off discard the leaves (due to their minor inconvenience of being poisonous) and 9 out of ten times prepare them this way and adorn them after with whatever matching partner lays in wait in my fridge.
101 ways with Rhubarb
100g rhubarb stalks, trimmed and cut into sizeable chunks
1 tablespoon water/ juice half an orange
1 tablespoon honey – local if poss.
Feel free to increase the amount of rhubarb, just remember to systematically increase the amount of honey too.
Place your rhubarb in a heavy based pan with the water and the honey and set over a medium heat with the lid on.
Once the rhubarb has extracted some liquid and is simmering away turn the heat down to very low and leave for about 20 minutes or until the rhubarb is softened to your liking.
Easy Rhubarb trifle
Allow your cooked rhubarb to cool then take some trifle sponges or soft amaretti biscuits and line your chosen bowl or individual glass. Place the rhubarb on top of the biscuits/ sponges then add a layer of custard or lemon curd (I used some homemade passion fruit curd). Next mix a tub of mascarpone cheese with around half a tub of full fat Greek yoghurt and a teaspoon of vanilla paste and place on top of your custard or lemon curd. Leave in the fridge until ready to serve.
Rhubarb Breakfast
Take a couple of tablespoons of your rhubarb then top with some Greek yoghurt, honey, berries and some flaked almonds.
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